J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Belluno, with the Porta Rugo above the Valley of the Torrente Ardo 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Belluno, with the Porta Rugo above the Valley of the Torrente Ardo’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 67 Verso:
Belluno, with the Porta Rugo above the Valley of the Torrente Ardo 1840
D32394
Turner Bequest CCCXX 67a
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 149 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bullono’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner’s viewpoint is at the south-eastern end of Belluno, looking north where the Via Caduti del Ponte di San Felice now runs along the steep cliffs above the valley of the Torrente Ardo, with the pedimented Porta Rugo, a medieval structure with Baroque modifications,1 with its portal through the town walls towards the top left. Despite some later buildings and tree growth, the scene remains recognisable and dominated by the rugged mountains beyond.
Folio 72 recto (D32403) shows the classical Porta Feltre archway on the far side of Belluno. For other views of the town on adjacent pages, see under folio 66 verso (D32392).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See ‘Porta Rugo’, Commune di Belluno: Archivio Storico, accessed 9 April 2018, http://archivio.comune.belluno.it/porta-rugo/.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Belluno, with the Porta Rugo above the Valley of the Torrente Ardo 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-belluno-with-the-porta-rugo-above-the-valley-of-the-torrente-r1196628, accessed 16 July 2025.